Humanity in the Deep

“Erikson, you have the stick.”

“Confirmed, Alice, we have the stick,” Roger heard the lieutenant say as he took his hands off his board.

After almost two weeks of waiting, the Erikson had entered orbit. With an ominous feeling, Roger had watched the torch shut down.

Alice’s jets fired a few times and they began a slow descent onto the track of the docking ring.

With a clang, they hit. A few seconds later, the umbilical indicators lit up.

“We are showing umbilical connections. Do you read the same?”

“This is Alice. We copy and show the same. Permission to come on board.”

The captain cut in and said, “Granted, and good job, gentlemen and lady. You have our gratitude. We request you exit through the midship cargo lock.”

Roger signed off, and while putting the ship into gray mode, turned and asked Thomas, “You know what that’s about?”

“If I had to guess, I would say they have some kind of reception planned.”

Dianna turned and said, “Most likely,” as she unhooked herself and pushed herself out of the cockpit.

As Roger was doing the same he nodded in her direction and asked Thomas, “What’s with her? She hardly said a word the entire trip, I doubt she really looked at me once.”

“Don’t take it personally. She’s an aspie.”

“What?”

“I keep forgetting you grew up on a backwater. It means she has Asperger’s. There’s several dozen aboard, including about half her family. As a rule, aspie’s aren’t very social. She’s probably going to skip out on whatever the captain has planned.

“Come on,” he clapped Roger on the back, “We have an adoring public to get to.” He looked almost as happy as when the Alice had finished the six G burn.

---

The midship cargo lock opened to a midsize compartment. It was full of people.

When Roger and Thomas entered everyone began clapping and cheering. Roger was taking it all in when he was tackled and hit the bulkhead behind him.

It was Kat, hugging him around the waist so tight it almost hurt. After she righted herself, they kissed deeply, and for once, Roger didn’t mind the public display of affection.

“I missed you,” she said.

“I noticed,” he smiled, not letting her go. Nadica was rushing at him from the ‘top’ of the room. Roger saw her fast enough to jump up and grab her by her foot before she hit.

She started laughing then and managed to kick free and use her mag shoes to stand on the bulkhead above and behind Roger.

“I missed you too,” Nadica said with her hands on her hips.

“Kyle wanted to be here but he’s preparing a ‘meal,’,” she said, using air quotes.

“With what? Don’t tell me he held out some real food,” Roger asked.

“He says he’s found a way to quote ‘turn water into wine,’” she said, imitating Kyle.

The captain, councilors, and everyone else in the room wanted to shake his and Thomas’s hands and thank them personally.

It took close to half an hour to get free.

One thing Roger liked about the Erikson was they took their celebrations where they could. They had all lost a lot, but that did not mean grief ruled their lives.

It was something Roger was trying to embrace more.

---

Kyle indeed had been valiantly trying to do something much harder than turning water to wine: turning algae paddies into real food with minimal printer help.

They made it to the public kitchen nearest to their quarters quickly. Kyle was still wearing his newly-earned lieutenant’s uniform and working over the zero-G grill. He saw them and made his way over with a covered tray in each hand. With two clicks, the plates were on the table.

He put his hand out and Roger clasped hands with him.

“Hell of a thing you three did.”

“It had to be done, and there wasn’t anyone more qualified to do it. I hear you’ve found a way to turn algae into food?” he said, changing the topic.

“Was planning this to celebrate your citizenship a few weeks back but it was harder to make than it looks.” With Nadica’s help, Roger had passed the same tests she had.

The four of them ate. Kyle may not have turned water into wine yet, but he was making progress. The bread almost tasted real, close enough to close his eyes and forget, anyway.

Watching Kat, who was sitting next to him with a leg over his, Roger could not help but think back to the time she spent dancing with him, the times she held him. When he needed her, she was there. He thought of his life as having two halves, before he met Kat and after. Before he met her, his life had been about loss. Every change had been a loss; every day felt like he was losing something he would never get back. He never looked forward to the next day. All it could bring was pain.

Then he met Kat, and everything changed. He changed. He helped her and was helped; he loved her and was loved in return.

Drunk on something more potent than wine, he looked into Kat’s eyes and decided that there would never be a better moment. He took the ring from his pocket and presented it to Kat, hesitantly saying, “Katrina Loke, will you marry me?”

For just a moment, she looked shocked, but then she put down her food and hugged him while loudly yelling, “Yes, I will!”

She pointed to her brother and said, “Kyle, record.”

Kyle flipped open his comp, and said, “This is Kyle Loke witnessing.”

Nadica said as her eyes grew wider, “This is Nadica Loke witnessing.”

“Katrina Loke, do you take Roger Powell to be your husband? To love, and to honor. Do you swear to put his life and happiness above your own?” Kyle said somberly.

She looked into his eyes and said, “I do,” and kissed him.

Then it hit him. “We’re getting married now?” Roger’s heart was beating faster, and his eyes grew large with shock.

“You rather wait?”

“Of course not,” he replied quickly.

Kyle ignored him. “Roger Powell. Do you take Katrina Loke to be your wife? To love, and to honor. Do you swear to put her life and happiness above your own?”

Roger looked into her eyes, and he knew the answer.

“Absolutely yes. I’ve never been surer about anything in my life.”

He heard cheering and looked around to see that everyone who had been eating was applauding.

He had never felt more at home anywhere in his life.

---

“Sir, this is Rose, on watch.”

The captain woke up instantly and said, “What is it, Lieutenant Commander?”

“Sir, you better get up here.”

“On my way, Patel out.” He hoped she had a good reason for waking him. He strongly discouraged his officers from just asking for him without explaining. But given the circumstances, he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. And if he was wrong, chewing out was best done in person anyway.

He buttoned his uniform and left his quarters.

---

When he entered the C&C, it was hectic. Normally, third shift was dead.

He mag-walked to the tank. It showed more than a dozen tracks, all starting at planet D, the habitable planet of the system, and ending near the Erikson.

“Commander, report,” he turned as stiffly as he could in zero-G.

“Sir, the overwatch sat’s reported their launch twenty minutes ago. I called you when it became clear they were heading for us.”

After looking at the plot, Patel asked, “Is this right? They’re only going half a G?”

“Yes, although that’s not the weirdest thing.” She turned around and said, “Bring up the drive plume profile.”

An analysis appeared on the screen. “Look at the temperature, it’s about as low as a plasma drive can be. Those are the most inefficient plasma drives I have ever seen. If it was one, I would just assume a broken drive that they are forcing more fuel through as a bad fix but this...I have no idea.”

“What’s the best guess for an ETA?”

“One or two weeks. Maybe as long as three if they don’t accelerate all the way to turn around.”

“Still no signals directed our way? Or anything broadcast in any language the computer recognizes?”

“No, sir.”

The whole thing smelled of a setup.

“Commander, please send for as many second shift personnel as needed. I want every bridge and C&C console filled until further notice.”

Patel unsnapped his wristcomp and pulled the icons for chief Harken, Commander Smith, and Sergeant Adrian Moisey.

After waking them all up he said, “There are a dozen ships inbound, I need all three of you to get to your posts.

“Chief, I need to know what the capabilities of these ships are as soon as you can manage. Commander, please assist and pull anyone you need. I have the C&C.”

“Aye, aye,” they both replied.

The two of them hung up without saying anything else.

“Sergeant, I would like to offer you a commission as a lieutenant. I have a bad feeling I am going to need a military adviser.”

“Captain, I was marine, not navy.”

“I’m not asking you to fly the ship, I need someone who knows tactics and strategy. I need someone who knows what it’s like to be in a firefight. Frankly, I need someone who will talk sense to the council. They are good people, but none of them have ever been in a fight, not a real one.”

“You think it’s going to come to that?”

“I sincerely hope not, but the locals are not acting like friends and we are very vulnerable. There’s too much we don’t know here.”

“I’ll have to talk to the police chief. Assuming there are no problems on his end, I have some conditions. I will need to be kept up to date on everything we learn as we learn it, including our plans as we make them. If I’m to do any good at all, I can’t be a mushroom.”

If Patel remembered correctly, that meant ‘left in the dark and fed on shit.’. He technically could not guarantee that, but the sergeant knew the kind of pull the captain had.

“I will talk to the council about it. For now, can you join the commanders in engineering and see what you can do to help them get a feel for the capabilities of the ships approaching?”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

He hung up and went over to the tank, looking at the blips that were approaching.

“Strange days ahead, sir.” Rose walked beside him, seeing he was done talking. “No doubt,” he whispered softly.

---

The captain watched the fourteenth and last ship enter orbit around the Erikson. It felt like the doors to a cage were being locked.

“No signals from the last one?”

“No, sir, not yet,” The relay officer responded.

“Tag the last ship as not a valid target for the navigation lasers.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

His military adviser walked up to him and looked at the tank and screens by it. The Erikson had already sent out greetings in every language as well as some very old SETI signals. There was little to do but wait.

“Incoming tracks! Multiple vectors!” The Trajectories Officer called out.

The tank showed what looked to be very small missiles incoming.

“Navigation lasers firing!”

The captain hit the shipwide button on his wristcomp, and said, “All hands, brace for impact!”

He then said, “Emergency eject the Alice, now! I want her abeam of us, but nothing aggressive without my direct order!”

“Aye, aye.”

There were a few barely felt dull thuds, and some yellow lights flashed on the status screen.

Commander Smith, currently on the bridge while the captain manned C&C, called the captain’s wristcomp. He swiped to accept, “We have two small hull breaches, no casualties.”

The captain breathed a sigh of relief.

Moisey turned to the captain and said, “They’re probing attacks. If they wanted to hull us, they could have. They now know that we have one real set of weapons and that they have a limited cone they can fire in.”

He looked at the board and said, “Those were probably hollow bearings if I had to guess.

“This is probably a prelude to talking.”

After ten minutes of the locals doing nothing else, the captain said, “Get the Alice docked, but keep her ready to eject.”

---

Roger was so tired he did not notice Kat until she sat next to him and put her hand in his.

Roger was sitting with Nadica at Erik’s when he heard Kat say, “You look tired.”

“I am, but I feel better with you here, lovely girl.” He then leaned over and kissed her.

There was a click, and Kyle, and what looked like cheese and crackers, were at the table.

When Roger looked at him, Kyle asked, “How long you off duty?”

“Twelve hours, then I’m back in the Alice if nothing changes. Nodel and I, with our crews, each have twelve-hour shifts.”

There was a short pause, then Nadica picked up the some cheese and took a bite with Kyle watching. “It’s good, almost tastes like real cheese.”

“Thanks, been trying to get the cheese right all week, god knows we could all use a break from food straight from the printer,” he said putting the platter down on the table. It connected with a click.

“The crackers still need work,” his wife said from next to him.

Roger put his arm around her; she had gone so far over the last year. He did not know if the wounds she inflicted on herself would ever really go away. But she was getting better every day and he was proud of her.

Nadica looked up from where she was working on her comp and said, “The crackers are too uniform, real ones never look the same.” She crammed several in her mouth and went back to working, never losing concentration.

The wall screen at Erik’s turned on and Roger saw the face of the spokesman, John Nyda.

“At 08:32 today, the last of the fourteen ships currently surrounding us arrived.” The picture changed to a diagram of the surrounding space with icons showing the fourteen ships.

“As you all know, they fired at us from rail guns shortly after the last ship was in place. From what we can tell, what they fired were little more than hollow ball bearings. Beyond the two small hull breaches, they caused only minor damage. The consensus is that they were probing attacks meant to test us, not to damage us. After they saw what our navigation lasers could do, they backed up to a light second distant, and outside the cone, our lasers can hit accelerating targets.

“Then we received this message.”

The screen changed to a graphic with a simplified Erikson in the middle of fourteen other icons Roger assumed to be the local ships. It showed the Erikson start to leave, then get fired on. It reset. Then it showed the Erikson launch a boat. The Erikson got fired on again.

It then showed the Erikson send what looked like waves to the local ships. Next to the waves was a picture that looked to be entirely static. The waves went back and forth a few times then before the picture cleared up and they saw a clear picture of a person.

“They have apparently lost all knowledge of earth languages they had when they arrived. The translation team, however, has a program for the situation. In less than a day, they will be set up and in less than a month, we should be able to hold simple conversation with them. While we can send graphics to them and them to us, that is very limited. It is hoped that once we can really talk, we will be able to resolve any issues that remain.

“In other news, the preliminary results on the wreck found by the Alice are inconclusive. The tests seem to show that the wreck has been in space for more than a thousand years. As this is impossible, the tests are being redone. Data will be put on the cloud as the tests are finished.

“As always, if you have suggestions, please forward them to us.” It almost looked to Roger like there was an element of pleading in his eyes. Roger had never met him, not really, but he thought he knew what the spokesman was going through. He would never want that kind of responsibility.